With thanks to Global Health Now
National Science Foundation cancels research grants related to misinformation and disinformation – Nieman Lab
Read in full: https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/national-science-foundation-cancels-re...
SELECTED EXTRACTS
'Late on Friday afternoon, hundreds of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation got emails with bad news: their grants or fellowships had been cancelled.
'Elon Musk’s DOGE — the questionably constitutional initiative that shares a name with a meme coin — celebrated that the NSF had cancelled at least 402 grants as part of the cuts. The cuts were made to awards “that are not aligned with NSF’s priorities,” according to an announcement on the NSF site, “including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation.”
'“These cuts — along with diminished transparency of platforms (via data access to researchers), platforms retreating from content moderation, and the defunding of fact-checking organizations — are likely to make it even more difficult for researchers, journalists, and everyday people to find trustworthy information and to understand how social media and other information spaces are being manipulated for political and financial gain,” [Kate Starbird, computer scientist and professor at the University of Washington] said.'
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org